Economics Study
Article:
The article chosen for this study is about the legalization of Marijuana in the USA and the health factors related to it. The article “consequences of legalizing marijuana use” is written by Rebecca Haffajee in 2017. The article has discussed four different aspects. First, the author tells about the amount of marijuana use and its growth in recent years amongst the people. Secondly, the author has discussed the effects and harms of using marijuana. It tells about the medical applications and individual effects on a person. The author then comes to the legalization of marijuana in different states of the US and tells about the way it has been legalized. In the end, the author discusses the public health concerns about marijuana legalization in the US.
Article Discussion:
At first, the author investigates a study which was done in 2013 about the use of different drug types that include; marijuana, cocaine, illicit drugs, hallucination drugs, and prescribed drugs. According to this graph, the study tells that marijuana usage was around 6-7%, which has increased in the past three years.
Moreover, the author has made more analysis on the market and public increased usage of marijuana in the USA. The study tells that, as compared to other drugs marijuana has a large amount of usage in the USA. As compared to other drugs usage, marijuana has the highest usage in different regions of the US. According to the survey, cocaine has 855 users, legal pain relievers at 1,897, and marijuana is the highest drug used at 4,206. It shows that the amount of marijuana usage has a lot of increased among other drugs. It has affected a lot of the society and the economy as well.
The author then discusses the effects of this rapid usage on the health of the people. The author tells about the positive effects of marijuana, that it helps in reducing vomiting and nauseaus feeling amongst the cancer patients. It reduces chronical pain and better sleep outcomes in medical patients. It also helps in improving the conditions of HIV patients and improves PTSD conditions. However, the author told about the harmful effects on people due to marijuana usage. A study analyzed, that marijuana usage increases 9% overall addiction and 17% addiction in people who use it for a long term. The author says that marijuana usage is one reason for dangerous road accidents. It also affects the short-term memory of a person, and when a mother uses it, the newborn has a lower birth weight. In teenagers and children, marijuana usage results in bad educational results. The author says that all these effects are analyzed in the US culture and discussion is made on the analysis of US population.
The table shown above tells about the potency of THC used in marijuana. THC is the chemical combination of the cannabis plant, from which marijuana is extracted. The graph shows the amount of THC increased in marijuana in recent years. From 1995-2012, the graph increased from 4% to 12%. With time the amount of usage of marijuana has changed diversely, and it has made effective results.
After this analysis author discussed the evolution of legalizing marijuana in the US. California has been largely involved in the marijuana progression and has taken certain amount of steps in the past to legalize marijuana.
The timeframe listed above shows the legalization of marijuana in the state of California. California first tried to pass the bill in 1972, but it was rejected by the voters, but in 1975 authorises made a bill that listed the legal laws for making marijuana legal. In 1996, marijuana was approved legal in terms of medical usage only. Then in 2010, the previousl proposition was rejected and was told to transform the marijuana act. Finally, in 2016 marijuana became legal in the state of California.
After legalization in California, other states also started to adopt the laws and in different regions of US, marijuana is now legal. It includes Washington DC, Oregon, Colorada, Alaska, Massachusetts, and the state of Maine. While, in some other states it has been legalized and the bill is to be passed in nov. 2016.
References
Haffajee, Rebecca. “Pandora’s Box? The (Unknown) Consequences of Legalizing Marijuana Use.” (2017).
